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But right now, with Phoebe's hands on his face and her kiss still lingering on his mouth, he knew that he'd found what he was meant to find.

With a low whisper of reverence, he slid his hand under her jaw and leaned in, taking her mouth in his, in the kiss that his soul had been waiting for him to find.

Phoebe slid her arms around his neck, her body leaning into his as she kissed him back. The kiss was surreal. Electric. Life. Desire awoke in him with a fierce howl, ripping through his control. He angled his head, deepening the kiss, sliding his hands over the curve of her ass.

Her body felt incredible beneath his hands. The curve of a woman. This woman. Her hips. Her lower back. Her ass. Her shoulder blades. He moved his hands all around, tracing the contours of her body, memorizing the curves, the lines, the softness.

Phoebe laughed quietly, breaking the kiss. "Your hands feel desperate on me."

He paused his hand on her hips, and took a breath. "Sorry."

"No." She touched his jaw. "Never apologize for who you are. If someone doesn’t get it, it's on them, not you. But in this particular case, I get it, so that's even more reason not to apologize."

He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers. "I am completely out of my depth with you."

She rested her hands on his hips, mimicking how he was holding hers. "I feel that way as well," she said. "I fight for the independence of women. I taught myself to stand on my own, to never need a man or intimacy. I'm trying to teach Annie that strength. And yet, with you, I just want to abandon all of that and lose myself in you."

He kissed her forehead and pulled her against him. She came willingly, wrapping her arms around his waist as she rested her cheek against his chest. "You're not abandoning all that," he said. "Allowing yourself joy doesn't make you weak."

"And you know this how?"

"Because my horses are my joy. I live and breathe them. Riding them makes me feel like the greatest, luckiest man on this earth. I lean into that joy, because it makes me able to handle the rest of my life better. The horses make me able to lean into my family, who I love with all of my soul."

"Huh."

He laughed softly and rested his chin on Phoebe's head, continuing to scan their surroundings even as he held her and drank in the feel of her body against his. She was right. He had been desperate when he'd first touched her, but now he felt serenity. Calmness. Peace.

She wasn't going anywhere, and somehow, his soul understood that.

He had time. Which was good, because he needed it.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hours later, Jacob was dozing on a chair outside their door with his gun when his phone rang, jerking him awake. He answered it immediately. "Dylan. What's the deal with the threat against Phoebe and Annie? I need information. How immediate is the threat? What level?"

He hadn't been able to sleep in the gym.

He'd needed to be close to them, where he could be the final line of defense if someone got through everything he had set up.

Dylan didn't try for the small talk. "I just got off the phone with Eliana. The guy's name is Frank Robinson. He was in jail for almost killing Annie's mom. Big domestic violence situation. Eliana thinks that Annie's mom was killed in a hit that Frank called in from prison, but she has no proof."

Jacob leaned his head back against the wall. "Fuck."

"He got out yesterday, and she's pretty sure that he's coming for Annie. She thinks he somehow found out where Annie was, so I'm setting up a team at Phoebe's house to wait for him. We'll try to get him there."

Jacob banged his head against the wall lightly as tension slammed into his gut. It had been a long time since he'd needed to be on this level of alert. "Is there any way that he can track her here?"

"No. Unless he has Eliana's phone tapped, which is impossible. I check her systems constantly. All you need to do is keep them there. They're off the radar at your place, and as long as they stay there, he won't find them."

"But he found out where Annie was. I assume that info was also protected?"

"Yeah, we're working on finding that leak," Dylan said. "We'll find it. But no one knows Phoebe is there except Eliana, and the family. Nothing has been in writing on her computer or phone. Unless her phone is tapped, no one will know."

Jacob considered that. "How confident of that are you?"

Dylan sighed. "I wish I could say one hundred percent but until I figure out how he got Annie's location, I'm instructing you to stay alert. How sure are you that no one followed you?"

"Lucas was following me. We both watched. Saw no one."